Horror films: repulsive yet appealing
John Amorose
Collegian Staff
The element of horror has been
present in film as long as film has been
around. Black and white images of
Frankenstein, Dracula, and the
Wolfman have terrified audiences for
most of the twentieth century. The
monsters in these movies were mostly
hideous mutations of man, and loved
to kill, kill, kill. Enter the "hero"—the
hero discovers the monstrous creature's
weakness: Dracula hates sunlight, sil
ver bullets can kill the Wolfman, etc.
Using his newfound knowledge, the
hero then devises a plan and defeats
the monster, usuall
saving the gratuitous
"helpless female."
This all usually takes
place in the last quar
ter of the movie.
Sound complicated?
No, not really. But
people flocked to see
these movies
The 1950's brought forth the master
of fright, Alfred Hitchcock. With clas
sics like The Birds and Psycho,
Hitchcock is recognized as the godfa
ther of horror. Like Beethoven's com
posing of symphony number five or
Shakespeare's writing King Lear,
Alfred Hitchcock wove elaborate tap
estries of horror like no other; complete
with dynamic characters, both male
and female, and legendary scenes (as
though anyone hasn't seen the murder
in the shower in Psycho).
Haunted Chambers,
a worthy scare
Nadine Cross
staff writer
Pig-faced monsters, chainsaw
wielding demons, maniacal sur
geons—these are some of the horri
fying sights visitors to the Wesleyville
Haunted Chamberk Wriikinv,e, Fo
ACROSS
1 Lager
5 L.A. athlete
10 War god
14 Stew-filled pot
15 Oil source
16 Border on
17 Leave out
18 Musical sounds
19 Facilitate
20 Of holy
character
22 Placard
24 Singles
25 Horned animal
26 Packer of food
29 Soldiers on
guard
33 Whitney and
Wallach
34 Joined
36 Theater part:
abbr.
37 Excavation
38 Nerve or
laughing end
39 Fourth caliph
40 Hurt
42 Nips
44 Crisp cookie
45 Get back
47 Owns up to
49 Press
50 A Muse
51 Kind of mill
54 Made duller
57 Blue-pencil
58 Brainless one
60 Makes haste
62 Fork part
63 Code name
64 Gaelic
65 Farming need
66 Ceased
67 Check
DOWN
1 Scary yell
2 Shade trees
3 "Essays of —"
4 Gives sparingly
5 Game of chance
6 Bitter drug
7 Type
8 Holiday time
9 Reply
The 1970's and 1980's brought forth
the heyday of horror movies. Monsters
became more than just senseless kill
ers. Each was given its own charis
matic personality and history. Audi
ences, for the first time, could see their
favorite Duke of Dismemberment per
form curtain call after curtain call, as
horror sequels ran wild. The most pro
lific, the Friday the Thirteenth series,
spawned nine sequels. These movies
featured the world champion of horror
icons, Jason Vorhees, who spent more
then a decade terrorizing unsuspecting
teens who dared venture to Camp Crys
tal Lake. Donning his signature hockey
This... is what horror is all about: no
plot development, no interesting
dialogue—just Leatherface wielding
a chainsaw like a maniac...
mask, Jason used whatever he could
pick up and swing to put his unintelli
gent victims out of his or her perspec
tive miseries. The Friday the Thir
teenth series was a microcosm of scary
movies of this time. Each movie was
chockful of paper thin characters,
cheesy dialogue (to say the least), and
most of all, lots and lots of gratuitous
sex.
Fans soon found out, though, that if
they avoided Crystal Lake, they would
be all right, save for Mr. Vorhees' trip
to Manhattan in movie number eight.
face—if they dare to venture in.
Sponsored by the North East area
radio station STAR 104, the Haunted
Chambers open at 7 p.m. every night
until Halloween and are located near
the Wesleyville Country Fair on Sta
tion .Road. After paying the admis
siculillliFf Qii§ 4 fiA Adis alVil•s3lf94.
01997
All rights rosary,
10 Man at the
podium
11 As blind as
12 Trick
13 After young or
pun
21 Dir. letters
23 Cereal grass
25 Web-footed
birds
26 Fragrant wood
27 Wonderland girl
28 Dark
29 Glide over Ice
30 Tehran native
31 Brilliance
32 Sends
35 Pointed arch
41 Burst forth
42 Make unclean
43 Greeted,
militarily
44 Suffocate
46 Wrath
48 Racket
50 Neck-and-neck
51 Animal friends
52 Miss Adams
53 Yearn
54 Cageling
Enter Freddy Krueger and the Wes
Craven 1984 horror classic A Night
mare on Elm Street. Vastly different
form Jason, Freddy would enter into
his victims dreams to do his bidding.
With the use of humor, creativity, and
the signature "claw," for seven years
and six sequels Mr. Krueger decimated
those who dared fall asleep. (Well,
seven if you count A New Nightmare,
though it wasn't very good).
But hands down the most graphic,
gory, and controversial horror movies
of this time, possibly of all time, are
those in The Texas Chainsaw Massa
cre series. This, in my opinion, is what
horror is all about: no
plot development, no
interesting dialogue—
just Leatherface wield
ing a chainsaw like a
maniac at and through
anything or anyone that
has the misfortune of
getting in his way.
Leatherface was the epitome of what a
monster should be. He didn't talk to
anyone, rarely had a reason for the
murders he'd commit, and oozed with
determination; he was shot, stabbed,
cut with his own saw, hit by a truck,
and still survived four movies. Years
after completion of the final installment
of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Leatherface still has an unprecedentec
cult following. There are many sites
on the Internet with the sole purpose
of Leatherface worship, and his mov
ies are forever on the Most Popular
children, brave souls wait in a tent
amidst costumed monsters and ghouls
to enter the Chambers in groups of
ten. The anticipation only heightens
the fear because the visitors can hear
victims screaming; the average half
hour wait adds uncertain excitement
whether or not one is Scared. Once
Hibernia
Mr. Arnaz
Put on
Lawmaker: abbr.
55
56
59
61
Features
Rentals lists at video stores, especially
this time of year.
As we enter the final chapter of the
twentieth century, horror movies have
taken a completely different turn. See
ing frightening, undead monsters
wreaking mayhem over many years is
a thing of the past. Modern horror
movies, such as Wes Craven's im
mensely popular Scream, and more
recently I Know What you Did Last
Summer, feature real-life people in
The film / Know What You Did Last Summer is an example of the most recent generation of
horror flicks: more complex characters, greater developed plot--yet still with the underlying
element of the grotesque.
inside, the group feels its way along
a pitch black maze until reaching a
frightful creature who leads them
from room to room where visitors see
an ax murder, a beheading, and a
spoof on the Hollywood film,
Candyman, among other horrifying
scenes. The scariest part of the expe
rience comes at the very end when a
deformed man with a buzzing ... well,
I'll let you see for yourselves.
The best part of the experience
is the "tour" aspect of the Haunted
Chambers. It was much more excit
ing to see a "show" in each room
rather than just trying to find the way
along dark passages like other .
hauntedhouses. The actors' costumes
seemed to be well-prepared—in other
words, the clothing was nicely
mangled and grime-covered and the
detached limbs were nicely blood
ied—and their scripts were, for the
most part, rehearsed. The only prob
lem was that some of them would
speak in their normal voices and say
things like, "Sorry for stepping on
your foot, but I can't really see
through this mask." That kind of
takes the edge off things. Some of
the scenes were too obviously fake.
For example, during the beheading
scene, a mad prison guard was sup
posed to cut off a man's head; how
ever, when his severed head was
shown to the group, it was the head
of a female doll.
The Haunted Chambers are defi
nitely worth a visit. It is surprising
how frightened one can become just
being in the haunted house atmo
sphere even while knowing that the
blood and severed limbs are just part
of an act. Some words of warning:
visitors will get splashed with inde
scribably disgusting liquids and the
monsters will come up and get right
in the spectators' faces and/or touch
them. Also, go on a dry night and
dress warmly because the admissions
line begins outside and one may get
wet and will most certainly be cold.
s DISCOUNT EVERth
ife ari tath 4287 Buffalo Road
1616 Ead 38th Street
4029 Peach Street
real-life situations. Characters have
become more complex and much more
dynamic. Plot, rather then sex and
gore, now dominates horror. Women
.an now be the hero, which very rarely
was the case in the past. But, as al
ways, the good-guy or good-gal (what
ever the case may be) wins in the end.
The monster does make an occasional
appearance in the 90's version of hor
ror, such as The Relic and Mimic—al
though the plots of these modern-day
monster movies are not original, and
neither are the monsters themselves, so
the films' stay in theaters are usually
short-lived.
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- 'Stop foi details.
Thursday, October 30, 1997 The Behrend College Collegian - Page 9
So the question now is "why?" Why
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after close to a century of death, dis
memberment, decapitation and
disembowlment, do audiences still run
screaming to and from theaters to
watch horror movies? It could possi
bly be an escape from the mundane.
Another explanation could be the feel
ing a viewer gets when good finally
conquers evil. Personally, I think it's
the good, old-fashioned feeling of hav
ing the living crap scared out of you
for a couple of hours.
So on Friday, try to avoid Crystal
Lake, don't go down into the basement
to see what that noise was, and what
ever you do, don't fall asleep.
nutrition).
nich or en-
nstead.
Sponsored by
Health and Wellness Center
$25 .
1
for 10 visits;